The greatest trilogy in film history, presented in the most ambitious sets in DVD history, comes to a grand conclusion with the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Not only is the third and final installment of Peter Jackson's adaptation of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien the longest of the three, but a full 50 minutes of new material pushes the running time to a whopping 4 hours and 10 minutes. The new scenes are welcome, and the bonus features maintain the high bar set by the first two films, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.

What's New?
One of the scenes cut from the theatrical release but included here, the resolution of the Saruman storyline, generated a lot of publicity when the movie opened, as actor Christopher Lee complained in the press about losing his only appearance. It's an excellent scene, one Jackson calls "pure Tolkien," and provides better context for Pippin to find the wizard's palantir in the water, but it's not critical to the film. In fact, "valuable but not critical" might sum up the ROTK extended edition. It's evident that Jackson made the right cuts for the theatrical run, but the extra material provides depth and ties up a number of loose ends, and for those sorry to see the trilogy end (and who isn't?) it's a welcome chance to spend another hour in Middle-earth. Some choice moments are Gandalf's (Ian McKellen) confrontation with the Witch King (we find out what happened to the wizard's staff), the chilling Mouth of Sauron at the gates of Mordor, and Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) being mistaken for Orc soldiers. We get to see more of Éowyn (Miranda Otto), both with Aragorn and on the battlefield, even fighting the hideously deformed Orc lieutenant, Gothmog. We also see her in one of the most anticipated new scenes, the Houses of Healing after the battle of the Pelennor Fields. It doesn't present Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) as a savior as the book did, but it shows the initial meeting between Éowyn and Faramir (David Wenham), a relationship that received only a meaningful glance in the theatrical cut.

If you want to completely immerse yourself in Peter Jackson's marvelous and massive achievement, only the extended edition will do.

And for those who complained, no, there are no new endings, not even the scouring of the Shire, which many fans were hoping to see. Nor is there a scene of Denethor (John Noble) with the palantir, which would have better explained both his foresight and his madness. As Jackson notes, when cuts are made, the secondary characters are the first to go, so there is a new scene of Aragorn finding the palantir in Denethor's robes. Another big difference is Aragorn's confrontation with the King of the Dead. In the theatrical version, we didn't know whether the King had accepted Aragorn's offer when the pirate ships pulled into the harbor; here Jackson assumes that viewers have already experienced that tension, and instead has the army of the dead join the battle in an earlier scene (an extended cameo for Jackson). One can debate which is more effective, but that's why the film is available in both versions. If you feel like watching the relatively shorter version you saw in the theaters, you can. If you want to completely immerse yourself in Peter Jackson's marvelous and massive achievement, only the extended edition will do.

How Are the Bonus Features?
To complete the experience, The Return of the King provides the same sprawling set of features as the previous extended editions: four commentary tracks, sharp picture and thrilling sound, and two discs of excellent documentary material far superior to the recycled material in the theatrical edition. Those who have listened to the seven hours of commentary for the first two extended editions may wonder if they need to hear more, but there was no commentary for the earlier ROTK DVD, so it's still entertaining to hear him break down the film (he says the beacon scene is one of his favorites), discuss differences from the book, point out cameos, and poke fun at himself and the extended-edition concept ("So this is the complete full strangulation, never seen before, here exclusively on DVD!"). The documentaries (some lasting 30 minutes or longer) are of their usual outstanding quality, and there's a riveting storyboard/animatic sequence of the climactic scene, which includes a one-on-one battle between Aragorn and Sauron.

Too Little, Too Often...

I may be the odd one out, but I liked the theatrical version somewhat better. Despite choppy edits in the TE, it wasn't as rushed or harried as this Extended Edition felt. The editing here in the EE is still less than good, compared to the first two EE versions, whose flow created a glorious literary feeling. ROTK-EE chops and jerks from scene to scene and dialogue flow stutters, painfully pointing out that many more scenes in between are absent. It seems the more they added back in, the more we noticed what was still missing.
Instead of a smooth transition and easy flow (like the very nearly flawless FOTR:EE), the scene transitions moved lightning fast - jump jump jump - with no thought given to the poor audience trying to soak up the vast amounts of information and action being chucked our way (wait, please, PJ!! let me revel in that moment!).

While still undoubtedly the finest treatment of Tolkien's masterpiece, Jackson gives us both an achingly gorgeous creation, unfortunately mixed with a few frustrating deviations.
The wonderful Healing scenes were "blink- oops you missed them" fast and the development of the beautiful, pure and innocent relationship between Faramir & Eowyn cut short, if not cut off (though the feeling of innocence remains). The healing of Eowyn - cut to exactly 1:30 minutes. The healing of Faramir? Non-existent. And the ad nauseam additional scenes of Gollum could easily have been left out. The whole "Smeagol lied!" bit made me want to puke. By the time they reached Mt. Doom I'd so had it with Gollum I could have killed myself. PJ really over emphasized his character and it seemed like he was rubbing it in our faces at this point.
It's a dream come true to see the novel realized, and many of the added scenes were glorious, don't get me wrong, but it certainly felt like PJ just THREW in the other scenes (some, badly-chosen) to satisfy his eager audience in order to call it an "Extended Edition".
Some were downright amazing: the resolution of Saruman - With the hectic and sometimes tedious pace of the battle scenes to follow this confrontation is actually a nice breather! Merry's monologue to Eowyn was very lovely. I really love the little touches like these that PJ added back in. I loved the addition of Eomer finding his sister on the battlefield along with the transition into the Houses of Healing when we see Aragorn healing Eowyn, but again, it was cut down too much.
The problem of omitting the majority of Eowyn & Faramir's relationship is that it makes the whole building up of Eowyn & Aragorn utterly useless. If you're not going to have a resolution to previous areas of the plot, don't over-emphasize it in the first place.
To leave out the resolution of these "other" characters cuts into the dignity of PJ's hard work. I was angry to get more Gollum and more of "Gandalf explains to Aragorn what to do" and less of these "minor character" development scenes. Peter Jackson in adapting, of course, had to change many points of view to better develop his characters for those unfamiliar with the books, but he seems to have tried too hard to TELL, instead of show. Things were spelled out and dumbed down a little too much, creating too much unnecessary repetition. Things weren't as bad here as they were in TTT:EE ("Sauron is using his puppet Saruman to destroy Middle Earth" or the like, was said no less than THREE times!).
Also, cutting into the dignity of the film is humor applied at inappropriate places, such as Gimli continuously being the butt of jokes. It seems that Jackson had nothing better to do with this character - and especially Legolas's - and changed their relationship entirely, giving them a more "modern", bantering relationship. When watching some of Gimli's scenes, I was pained that PJ wrote such things into his script. A little more restraint would have been better, and turning to his original source a wise idea, instead of creating something new to "please the audience". The comic relief against the background of the horror of battle is placed by Tolkien in the two young Hobbits, and there it should remain!
Other lackluster points include blase Legolas stunts, the over-dramatising of Aragorn's destiny (just get on with it!), and the lack of explaining Denethor's madness (a 30-second explanation is so easy: show him whipping out a Palantir, explains the "I have seen much" hint and boom!, madness explained away and potentially forgiven). Otherwise, he's just another bastard who favors his older son, dignity compromised. His character is still great, but the Palantir ought to have been included here.
Scenes like "The Last Debate" also still continued to slightly disappoint - the lack of other peoples contributing to the final decision to march upon the Black Gate really left me wanting, and really missing Imrahil! He also could have easily been placed into the story and explained in 30 seconds, and his importance created in one line "this is Faramir's uncle" generating an "Ooh! we like Faramir. I bet his uncle is just as spiffy!" audience response. And, oh, dear LORD, Legolas' "a diversion" takes the cake as far as utterly stupid dialogue goes. Oh well.
With the Mouth of Sauron: yes, we all felt like doing that to the MoS, but his trap was so sneaky and dastardly in the book, I was sorry to lose it. It seemed like a cop out.
And WHAT happened to the horses at the Black Gate? PJ's "additions" ruined the continuity! He had a wee bit too much fun romping around in Middle Earth and forgot to fix the things he messed with. Makes the fact that "this is a movie" all too clear, unfortunately, and sometimes, you really just want to soak in the fantasy!

I still felt like I had ADHD by the time the movie ended. Of course, this doesn't mean that I wasn't bawling like a baby by the end of it, crying because it's over, crying because this film was amazingly glorious, despite its flaws. Good job, overall, Peter Jackson! Whew. What a ride it's been, eh?

Stick around for the hours of extras. They do great justice to PJ's film. The pieces on adapatation & creation, and the bio bit about Tolkien's life particularly are fabulous.

The greatest book of our time, captured on screen

As I'm a great fan of Tolkiens master pieces( Hobbit, Trilogy, Silmarillion) This was a great treat for me to see this glory on the screen. Yes, why has a young boy read these books, they are to complicated (especially the Silmarillion), are you right?

No. These books are great masterpieces, and I could wait no longer, therefore, studying them with great concentration. Fabulous.

On to the movie. Peter Jackson has done a fabulous job with capturing this move on screen. From the Gandalf and Shadowfax riding, to the great battle of Pelennor fields. Many people complained about not having the Scouring of the Shire. YET, thank Jackson for having much thought over this, do you remember Galadriels mirror in the Fellowship? Ahhh, see? You saw the Hobbits in Slavery! There are many other excerpts to of this scene.
One scene I hated. The Confrontation with the Witch King. The King breaks Gandalfs staff, and Gandalf is helpless. WHAT THE HECK!!??? Gandalf could beat the crap out of him any day? HORRIBLE!! Gandalf(Mithrandir, if you prefer) is one of the Maia! Is the Witch King? No.

Otherwise this movie is the greatest of all time. It actually made me cry, many times.
The time when Frodo leaves Sam, when Gandalf, the Remnants of Elves, and Frodo leave, it is a very touching movie. Don't worry there's always humor!!

Even in the future when these special effects seem dumb, the emotional part of the movie will still stay, and leave a big part in a person. Such as when the Rohirrim ride onto The Fields. When Frodo leaves. All the way until Sam has the Book. The great thing is that, no matter if this is the final part of the trilogy it still leaves you hanging. This world can go on! The Fourth Age is still to come! Kings will still reign!

I don't care what you say, this is a masterpiece. Tolkiens Saga still reigns. I know this review is short, there's not much to say, it's to perfect, it's almost impeccable.

Mr friends, welcome to magical world.

The Finest In DVD Today And Forever

Even if I don't watch these so often now like I did when I first bought them, does not mean I like them less. No I still think that no movie now or years into the future can make me feel like when I watch LOTR trigoly. Get these now and don't listen to the stupid people who can't handle these wonderful movies.